Meta

Month: April 2012

Welcome again to the photographic record of how all the sculpts of characters with the Super Strength power can hold object tokens.

I was hoping to post a big update full of photos of all the new Galactic Guardians with objects in hand (or otherwise) but I’ve run into the last minute to get my taxes done (and am dismayed by the huge payment I have to make this year after decades of nothing but refunds). So I’m just going to have to grab one from the vault:

It’s the Wrecking Crew. At left, see how Thunderball’s chain doesn’t actually connect to the wrecking ball, making for an easy hold. In center, Piledriver holds his object with some simple arm-twisting. And of course at right the original Ultimates version of The Wrecker cradles it like a baby.

_____

Got a freelance job I need to finish this week, so Thursday’s update will be a minimal one like this if it comes at all. Hoping to present the GG Token Totin’ showcase in seven days! Be there!

Concluding my look ahead to the Top 10 characters I want to see clixed in the future.

Five Marvel. Five DC. No remakes (…sort of). Here’s the final pair.

____

DC: Sand

Both a founding member of the modern-era Justice Society of America and one of the survivors of the old DCU’s Golden Age of heroes from the WWII years, Sanderson Hawkins is a JSA mainstay who’s somehow never made it into clix form.

Back in the old days of the Rookie/Experienced/Veteran design scheme, he’d have been perfect for creative dials. The Rookie would reflect his time from the 1940s as the non-powered kid sidekick of the original Golden Age Sandman — think Robin with JSA TA rather than Batman. The Experienced would be an Invulnerable brick for his decades stuck in the form of a sand monster. The Vet would have his current powers of shifting into sand form (and thus phasing through the earth) and his precognitive dreams (Probability Control). Now, with special powers, he could be done even better.

But unfortunately, the JSA has gone from its height of being one of DC’s great titles and teams back when HeroClix was new, 10 years ago, to virtual nonexistence in the New 52 DCU. Worse still, Sand lost out to Big Barda in an unprecedented fan poll last year. So it’s possible that we may never see him made. It’s a shame.

______________

Marvel: Power Pack.

Yeah, this is the big one. I’d like to see all four kids made as one Indomitable peanut-based transporter duo piece. They’d be a wild card (to represent how they team up with older heroes constantly). And, for at least the first half of their otherwise short 100-point dial, they’d have nothing but Special Powers, each slot corresponding to a different member of the team:

In the Speed slot: LIGHTSPEED. Julie would have a nerfed form of Hypersonic Speed (close attacks only and locked damage) and Energy Shield/Deflection.

In Defense: MASS-MASTER. Jack’s ability to turn to a cloud equals Super Senses and Smoke Cloud (for free at 0 range) and Close Combat Expert for his power to compact his molecules for his “Jack Hammer” attack.

Finally, in Damage, ENERGIZER. Katie disintegrates matter and releases the absorbed energy as power balls. That equates to Poison — but with a power action option to remove adjacent walls, objects and blocking to add a POWER BALL token to Power Pack’s card and then use Ranged Combat Expert once for each token. But because she glows when she’s absorbed enough power to shoot, Power Pack don’t get any hindering bonus against range when she’s got said tokens.

Finally, a couple of traits: Power Pack would get Multi-Attack (there’s four of ’em, yo), and their Defense would be +1 against characters lacking the Kid keyword (’cause no one brings their “A” game against children…except other kids).

And that’d be my world champion figure.

______

All right, that brings my wayyy extended series of Top Tens to a close. Look for a couple of new pocket checklists for the new sets coming out in the next week or so, along with a return to regular programming.

Longtime readers will recall that I love the Atlantis theme and keyword, and even you newbies can tell I like ethnic diversity. (If only more people did, maybe I wouldn’t have to write about stuff like this post on my other blog.)

So I was glad to see the new black “Aqualad” on the Young Justice cartoon and, shortly after, in the DC universe proper in “Brightest Day.” I think I prefer the comic version just a tad; I’ve never liked black characters being blond-haired (Storm of the X-Men, I’m thinking of your platinum tresses right now) and I like that the dreadlocked Jackson of the comics is the biological son of Aquaman’s blood enemy Black Manta. I hope he comes back somehow in the new 52.

Clixwise, Aqualad would hopefully bring some cheap Blades/Claws/Fangs to an aqua-team, along with Force Blast tied to water somehow.

Thundermind: China’s answer to Superman/Shazam — if they were based on a Buddhist template — would have Running Shot, TK, maybe Mind Control or Stealth and definitely, oh so definitely, a SP called “Bilocation” that’d work a lot like Star Trek Tactics’ U.S.S. Prometheus’ SP “Multi-Vector Assault.”

Immortal Man In Darkness: pilot of the reverse-engineered living alien fighter jet could be another Vehicle-keyworded piece. A double-based transporter.

Shaolin Robot: Just like it sounds. Powers would be named after the I-Ching hexagrams.

Socialist Red Guardsman: Armored radioactive powerhouse with Pulse Wave and special Poison that could hurt foe AND friend.

Mother of Champions: She’d be a peanut based duo consisting of her and one or two of said “champions,” with a SP or trait forcing her to take a click every time she clears tokens, representing her superpowered offsprings’ ultra-accelerated lifespans. After KO, she returns to the field a la Clown Prince of Crime from Arkham Asylum.

Let’s make this happen, WizKids and DC. Before the Chinese call in their markers!

________

Marvel: Monet St. Croix

When HeroClix got dirtnapped in 2008, this was the first figure I mourned never getting to see ‘clixed.

(Can you blame me? That’s a fantastic figure. But I digress.)

Also known as “M,” she’s a telepath and telekinetic, but those powers frankly take a back seat to her physical powers of super-strength, flight, invulnerability and insufferable know-it-all arrogance.

Oh, you say the last one isn’t a power? She probably thinks so.

She and Layla “Really DOES know it all” Miller are about the only members of the X-Factor team not to be made, and Monet has been around since “Generation X” (remember them?) so it’s high time this awesome Algerian mutant was made a clix.

After spending the first three MONTHS of Heroclixin’s 2012 looking back, it’s time to look ahead to the Top 10 characters I want to see clixed in the future.

Five Marvel. Five DC. No remakes. Here’s the next pair.

DC: Shilo Norman, Mister Miracle

We’ve gotten a few renditions of the New God Mister Miracle of New Genesis/Apokolips, several of them quite good. But we’ve never gotten his Earth-born protegé Shilo Norman. Although seemingly a pale shadow of the original, Scott Free, Shilo has shown himself to be his mentor’s equal in his way as the last human link to the Fourth World in both his Seven Soldiers series and as an instrumental part of the last fight against Darkseid in Final Crisis.

I also wouldn’t mind seeing the black Shilo Norman outshine the white Scott Free (at least until the New Gods make their triumphant return to DC and clix). C’mon, you know Scott Free would cheer louder than anyone.

The dial would be escape- and evasion-oriented, with high defense numbers including a Special Power Super Senses that allows immediate movement like WoS Nightcrawler’s. There’d be Smoke Cloud, a bit of armor in Toughness (he wore a bulletproof vest in Final Crisis) and, most of all, a SP to “Escape the Life Trap” that brings him back from KO after a few turns to represent his ability to thwart the grave itself.

If it seems like it’s overpowered, fret not: offensive powers would be nonexistent beyond maybe some Incap. Damage shouldn’t top 2, attack values would be 9s and 8s. He’d be more like a 100-point tie-up piece with a short dial. But man, I’d play the heck out of it.

___________

Marvel: Rescue

Tony’s girl friday Pepper Potts got her own repulsor-run suit of armor, but with the stipulation that it not be a personalized WMD. Outfitted with powerful electromagnetic and repulsor tech, her suit’s designed to save people — especially the woman inside it — instead of fighting.

So let’s see that: an armor with Defend and powerful defenses but low, low AV and damage. The ability to carry multiple pals out of harm’s way. The curious presence of Battle Fury to keep her from using the suit’s Super Strength to toss rock — and to represent the ability of the suit’s onboard A.I. to handle things regardless of enemy Mind Control.

(I also just want a new suit for my Stark Armory collection.)

_____

The next two on the wish list hail from places that are not America. (And one is a bit of a cheat.)

After spending the first three MONTHS of Heroclixin’s 2012 looking back, it’s time to look ahead to the Top 10 characters I want to see clixed in the future.

Five Marvel. Five DC. No remakes.

That’s what I want to say, anyway. But I’ll warn you right now: there will be a few sort-of remakes on my list. But you’ll understand why in the end.

Let’s get started.

5.

DC: Ferro Lad

Actually, I want all the unmade members of the Legion of Super Heroes to take this slot (Blok, Quislet, White Witch, Tyroc, Light Lass, Gates, Shikari, Monstress and about a half-dozen more I can’t recall at the moment) but this perpetually masked, long-ago-slain member of the team is the longest shot and a personal favorite.

Befitting his ability to transform into solid organic iron and his Legion membership (and flight ring), he’d be a fairly inexpensive Invulnerable, Super-Strong flying wildcard, but with a twist via an opening-click Special Power: fellow characters with Super Strength or Telekinesis could use him as a heavy object in battle. I’d also like to see an end-dial SP reflecting the self-sacrificial streak that’s shown up in every version of the character.

___________

On the Marvel side, more heavy metal: Iron Man Stealth Armor.

There have been a lot of versions of Tony Stark’s signature invention made in HeroClix, but this iconic black suit has yet to make an appearance. Being largely undetectable but low on raw power, the Stealth suit would appropriately have a Stealth-and-Energy Shield/Deflection trait but decidedly average numbers and not much in the way of offensive powers. In fact, I’d go so far as to not even give it any keywords to show just HOW invisible and under-the-radar (so to speak) Iron Man’s really trying to be here.

________

There’s the first two. Iron Man’s practically a certainty to be made eventually. Ferro, though? Not much hope with so many more living Legionnaires to see first.

The next DC guy last played a part in what may have been truly titled “Final” Crisis thanks to this New 52 thing they’re doing now. Meanwhile, a unique suit of armor and its wearer takes the next slot on the Marvel wish list tomorrow.